Terra

An informational, rewards-based app that empowers and encourages users to make environmentally-friendly choices at a low cost.

Elizabeth Jin , Samantha Pecan , Jacob Richey , Jose Roberto dos Remedios
2021-05-07

Problem Statement

Place a short description (3 sentences max) of your problem.

Climate change is a global investment good with no individual feedback available.

People are not aware of the environmental impact of their choices, or how to create an environmental impact with their choices.

An international push to net zero by 2050 will require informed, interested consumers driving a robust, global market of sustainable goods.

User Types

Primary Users (Target Group)

Suppliers (Facilitation)

Supporters (Environmental Activists)

Primary User Personas

Liz

Katie

Daniel

Conversation Starters

  1. If you woke up one day and decided “Hey, I want to start helping the environment more,” what would you do?
  2. Do you know your own carbon footprint? -> Would you be interested in knowing your own carbon footprint?
  3. On a scale of 1-10, how important is making environmentally-friendly decisions to you? -> Why not a 10?
  4. Do you think that you produce more or less waste than the average American? -> Would you like to know the answer? -> How do you think your behavior would change if you knew the answer?
  5. Do you anticipate changes in your feelings towards environmental causes over the next 5-10 years? What would be the primary causes of these changed feelings?

Meaningful Quotes from User Interviews

Claire Kelly, Primary User

April 1st, Zoom

I really want to help out the environment as much as possible, but I financially cannot make it a top priority while I am in college.

Young people, I think, care the most about the environment. We’re the ones who have to live with the decisions we make now later.

I think now is more important to be environmentally conscious than ever. At some point the damage we do will be irreversible and that’s so scary.

Vivian Voth, Environmental Education Major (Supporter)

April 2nd, Zoom

The problem with educating yourself about environmental causes is that the process is quite negative, you’ll learn about oceans filled with plastic and animals going extinct.

I think a lot of people don’t know how to help the environment themselves, in their own individual lives.

All sustainability movements start at the individual level.

Marcelo Garcia, Primary User

April 3rd, Zoom

It’s really hard to get parents and older people of older generations to care about the environment, because it’s not really high on their priorities. It takes a lot of help from close young relatives to teach them, but that’s something we can’t do alone.

My favorite part of work is teaching people about the environment, and how little it takes for us to change it. That’s why it’s important to have small daily habits that are helpful rather than harmful, because either way, it builds up.

Jane Park, Primary User

April 4th, Zoom

The reason why people are becoming more and more ignorant about environmental problems is because people, including myself, tend to regard the environmental problem as something too far away. They, we, are mostly interested in more micro-level, individual problems.

The most critical part of solving environmental problems is providing incentives that can personally stimulate individuals and habituate making environmentally conscious decisions.

If you want to keep your users’ interest in your application, the best way is to give some fun to them. I think it’s really important to gamify the system and provide a certain level of entertainment to the users.

Nora Schaper, Co-founder of HiBAR (Supplier)

April 7th, Zoom

The biggest hurdle is asking people to make behavior changes for environmental reasons. We have to help them understand that it’s as effective as other well-known products and it’s an equal substitute and competitor.

The biggest challenge was getting people to trust us. We really started gaining traction once our website supported customer reviews and customers started writing about what they liked about the product. Testimonials from existing customers go a long way.

Learnings from User Interviews

Positive incentives matter.

“I will use it actively at first, but if there is no additional incentive or content that can arouse my interest, I probably won’t continue using it.” - Jane Park

Finances matter even more.

“I find sustainable shoppping difficult because of the financial burden and lack of availability.” - Claire Kelly

Storyboarding a Solution

Frame 1

Jane is a UPenn freshman, interested in personally helping the environment, but with no idea where to start. Keyword search of “environment” on the app store leads her to Terra.

Frame 2

Frame 3

Prototype

Next Steps